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To assess oil reserves we must ask two questions.
How many barrels of oil were in the ground before we started extracting it? How much have we taken out so far?
We will never know the answer to either question. So how do environmentalists know we are running out?
In fact there is no hard evidence of a lack of crude oil in the world.
Simply do the maths.
Global oil use = 31.5 billion barrels per year. One barrel oil =42 U.S. Gallons. One cubic foot = 7.48 U.S. Gallons. One cubic mile = 147.2 billion cubic feet. So the volume of oil consumed by mankind annually = (31.5 x 42) / (7.48 x 147.2) = 1.2 cubic miles of oil per year.
The volume of the earth is 260,000 million cubic miles.
If by volume a millionth of the interior of the earth contains oil, there is enough to last 260,000 years.
But if 1/250,000 of the earth is oil, which is only about the volume of the Mediterranean Sea, which does not seem unreasonable, at the present rate of consumption we can drive our SUVs around for another million years.
Yes, a million years.
Originally posted by babybunnies
OP, your logic is deeply, deeply flawed.
First of all, the basic math is flawed. You need to do some research re how many barrels in a cubic foot, definitely not 1. Have you seen the size of a barrel of oil?
Then, there definitely isn't oil in 1 percent of the Earth's volume, not even a tiny, tiny fraction of one percent would be oil.
You need to go back to the drawing board, sir.
Originally posted by SpaceJockey1
Came across this article that proposes the opposite to all the peak oil theories!
To assess oil reserves we must ask two questions.
How many barrels of oil were in the ground before we started extracting it? How much have we taken out so far?
We will never know the answer to either question. So how do environmentalists know we are running out?
In fact there is no hard evidence of a lack of crude oil in the world.
Simply do the maths.
Global oil use = 31.5 billion barrels per year. One barrel oil =42 U.S. Gallons. One cubic foot = 7.48 U.S. Gallons. One cubic mile = 147.2 billion cubic feet. So the volume of oil consumed by mankind annually = (31.5 x 42) / (7.48 x 147.2) = 1.2 cubic miles of oil per year.
The volume of the earth is 260,000 million cubic miles.
If by volume a millionth of the interior of the earth contains oil, there is enough to last 260,000 years.
But if 1/250,000 of the earth is oil, which is only about the volume of the Mediterranean Sea, which does not seem unreasonable, at the present rate of consumption we can drive our SUVs around for another million years.
Yes, a million years.
Read rest of story here
I think his annual consumptions numbers might be a bit on the light side (closer to 45 billion barrels), but it probably doesn't greatly alter the end numbers, and his estimates of how many years they could last.
He also talks about the Russian renewable 'abiogenic' oil theory, which I can see a lot logic in.
I know that it all sounds a bit if a fetch, BUT just imagine that he's onto something and all this time we've been LIED to, so that oil prices and everything else related, can be kept artificially HIGH, by making us always believe in its 'scarcity'!
Your thoughts on this?
Please read the full article before commenting.
reply to post by SpaceJockey1
Between peak oil and global warming, sorry climate change, they're two issues that are being used to constantly make us feel GUILTY for LIVING, and to make us PAY excessively for the privilege.
Originally posted by SpaceJockey1
reply to post by fnpmitchreturns
And, WHY does it matter whether calculations could mean that due to exponential growth the reserves might only last 500k, 250k, 100k or even 10k years??? Given that our average life-spans are much less than 100 years, WHY are always being told that oil reserves are limited/dwindling...only good for another 30-40 years??? Because it suits those that BENEFIT >>> Oil companies & all associated industries, as well as those on the 'green / alternative' bandwagon, plus politicians and their carbon taxes, and a host of others that it suits for the sheeple to believe about limited resources!
Between peak oil and global warming, sorry climate change, they're two issues that are being used to constantly make us feel GUILTY for LIVING, and to make us PAY excessively for the privilege.
Not buying it...
there’s no way to fudge the numbers to make these statements correct—as the government’s own statistics show. While there has been a small uptick in production in the past few years, U.S. crude oil production reached its peak in 1970 at nearly 10 million barrels a day. We now produce less than 6 million barrels of crude a day—less than two-thirds as much as at the peak.